ARABIC LITERATURE

Their literary works were written in the Arabic language. The Arabic language further developed as a vehicle of science and
philosophy.
The first significant Arabic literature was produced during the medieval golden age of lyric poetry.
The Qasida is an ancient Arabic word and form of writing poem that was passed to other cultures after the Arab Muslim
expansion.
They treat the life of the tribe and themes of love, fighting, courage, and the chase. The poet speaks directly, not romantically,
of nature and the power of God.
With the advent of Islam, the Qur'an became the central work of study and recitation and the chief object of study of the
Muslim world.
The influence of India and Persia is seen in Arabic prose romance, which became the principal literary form.
The Western center of Arab culture was Spain.

ALI BABA AND THE FORTY THIEVES (Arab Folktale)

Ali Baba and his elder brother Cassim are the sons of a merchant. After the death of their father, the greedy Cassim marries
a wealthy woman and becomes well-to-do, building on their father’s business—but Ali Baba marries a poor woman and settles into the
trade of a woodcutter.

One day Ali Baba is at work collecting and cutting firewood in the forest, and he happens to overhear a group of forty thieves
visiting their treasure store. The treasure is in a cave, the mouth of which is sealed by magic. It opens on the seals itself on the words
“IFTAH YA SIMSIM” (Commonly written as “Open Sesame” in English) and the seals itself on the words “CLOSE, SIMSIM” (“Close
SESAME”). When the thieves are gone, Ali Baba enters the cave himself, and takes some of the treasure home.

Ali Baba and his wife borrow his sister-in-law’s scales to weight this new wealth of gold coins. Unbeknownst to them, she puts
a blob of wax in the scales to find out what Ali Baba is using them for, as she is curious to know what kind of grain her impoverished
brother-in-law needs to measure. To her shock, she finds a gold coin sticking to the scales and tells her husband, Ali Baba’s rich and
greedy brother, Cassim. Under pressure from his brother, Ali Baba is forced to reveal the secret of the cave. Cassim goes to the cave
and enters with the magic words, but in his greed and excitement over treasures, he forgets the magic words to get back out again.
The thieves find him there, and kill him. When his brother does not come back, Ali Baba goes to the cave to look for him, and finds the
body, quartered and with each piece displayed just inside the entrance of the cave as a warning to anyone else who mighty try to enter.

Ali Baba brings the body home, where he entrusts Morgiana, a clever slave-girl in Cassim’s household, with the task of
making others believe that Cassim has died in a natural death. First Morgiana purchases medicines from an apothecary, telling him
that Cassim is gravely ill. Then, she finds an old Tailor known as Baba Mustafa who she plays, blindfolds, and leads to Cassim’s
house. There, overnight, the Tailor stitches the pieces of Cassim’s body back together, so that no one will be suspicious. Ali Baba and
his family are able to give Cassim a proper burial without anyone asking awkward questions.

The thieves finding the body gone, realize that yet another person must know their secret, and set out to track him down. One
of the Thieves goes down to the town and comes across Baba Mustafa, who mentions that he has just sewn a dead man’s body back
together. Realizing that the dead man must have been the thieve’s victim, the Thief asks Baba Mustafa to lead the way to the house
where was performed. The tailor is blindfolded again, and in this state he is able to retrace his steps and find the house. The thief
marks the door with a symbol.

The plan is for the other thieves to comeback that night and kill everyone in the house. However, the Thief has been seen by
Morgiana and she, loyal to her master, foils his plan by marking all the house in the neighborhood with a similar marking. When the
forty thieves return that night, they cannot identify the correct house and their leader in a furious rage, kills the unsuccessful thief. The
next day, another Thief revisits Baba Mustafa and tries again, only this time, a chunk is chipped out of the stone step, at Ali Baba’s
front door. Again Morgiana foils the plan by making a similar chips in all the other doorsteps. The second Thief is killed for his failure as
well. At last, the leader of the Thieves goes and looks for himself. This time, he memorizes every details he can of the exterior of Ali
Baba’s house.

The Chief of the thieves pretends to be an oil merchant in need of All Baba’s hospitality. Bringing with him mules loaded with
thirty-eight oil jars, one filled with oil, the other thirty-seven hiding the other remaining thieves. Once Ali Baba is asleep, the Thieve plan
to kill him. Again, Morgiana discovers and foils the plan, killing the thirty-seven Thieves in their oil jars by pouring boiling oil on them.
When their leader comes to rouse his men, he discovers that they are all dead, and escapes. The next morning Morgiana tells Ali Baba
about the thieves in the jars, they bury them and Ali Baba shows his gratitude by giving Morgiana her freedom. To exact revenge, after
some time the Chief of Thieves establishes himself as a merchant, befriends Ali Baba’s son (who is now in charge of the late Cassim’s
business), and is invited to dinner at Ali Baba’s house. However the Thief is recognized by Morgiana, who performs a dance with a
blade for the diners and stabs it into his heart when he is off his guard. Ali Baba is at first angry with Morgiana, but when he finds out
the Thief tried to kill him, he is extremely grateful and rewards Morgiana by marrying her son to his son. Ali Baba is then left as the only
one knowing the secret of the treasure in the cave and how to access it. Thus the story ends happily for everyone except Cassim and
the forty Thieves.